Two men were killed and six other people were injured in a multi-vehicle collision Friday afternoon in the Sunland area, authorities said.

The three-car pileup happened about 3:10 p.m. in the 9200 block of La Tuna Canyon Road, when one or more vehicles attempted to pass in a two-way left-turn lane, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division said.

According to the LAPD, a Honda Civic traveling westbound struck a Lexus that was heading in the opposite direction. The Honda driver lost control of the car, which hit another Honda Civic that was also traveling westbound.

Several patients were trapped in two of the wrecked cars and were subsequently extricated by some of the more than two dozen firefighters who responded to the crash site.

The occupants of the first Honda, described as two men in their 20s, were pronounced dead at the scene; two other men and two boys were initially hospitalized in critical condition, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Another man was transported to a medical center in fair condition, while a sixth man sustained minor injuries and declined to be hospitalized.

The names of the deceased were not immediately released.

The conditions of the hospitalized patients were later upgraded to stable, the Police Department said.